French Presidential Runoff: Bayrou Attacks Mafia-Like Sarkozy, But Will Not Endorse Royal Either

April 26, 2007 (EIRNS)--François Bayrou, the candidate who came in third in the first round of the French presidential elections, told a packed press conference in Paris, on April 26th, that he will not endorse either Nicolas Sarkozy or Segolene Royal in the second round of the presidential elections. Bayrou, whose 18.5% of the vote will determine who is the next French president, is being massively courted by both camps. More than 300 journalists, French and Foreign, attended his press conference in a Paris hotel this afternoon.

While trying to keep equal distance from both, the content of his attacks were devastating to the Sarkozy campaign, which means that chances for a Segolene victory are much bigger than originally thought. Hopefully, she will not trade off some of the better parts of her program, to that of Bayrou which is in some aspects even more conservative than that of Sarkozy.

During his prepared statements and in questions, Bayrou attacked very sharply Sarkozy's methods of operating, short of calling him a mafioso. In his prepared statement he said, "Nicolas Sarkozy, because of his proximity to business circles and to media powers, because of his taste for intimidation and threats, he will concentrate in his hands powers as they have never been. Because of his own temperament and of the themes he has chosen to excite, he takes the risk of aggravating the torn social tissue, especially leading it to a policy which advantages the richest."

Royal he attacked mainly for her inclinations in favor of the Welfare state. "Segolene Royal seems to have a better intention on questions dealing with democracy, even though the Socialist Party did nothing when it was in power to correct those evils, (she) will heed more attention to the social tissue; but her program, multiplying the State interventions, perpetuating the illusion that it is up to the State to take care of everything, ... creating I don't know how many public services, goes exactly against ... the orientations necessary to restore to our country and its economy, their creativity and equilibrium".

Asked if some of his own deputies had gone over to the Sarkozy camp, Bayrou attacked the manner of exerting power used by Sarkozy, "multiplying pressures" to get people "to betray", a manner of behaving, he stated, that he would call typical of the "Hauts de Seine". This is a direct reference to the mafia methods of former Interior minister and former president of the regional council of the Hauts de Seine department of Paris. This area,- the richest in France, is where Sarkozy made his own career (Neuilly) under Pasqua, until he replaced Pasqua using the the latter methods. For many years Charles Pasqua has been a "godfather" operating within Gaullist circles. Bayrou said that those rallying to Sarkozy from his own camp are "old acquaintances" with this Hauts de Seine gang.

At the same conference, Bayrou announced the creation of a new Democratic Party and said that his 577 candidates to the upcoming legislatives in June, will run under that name. The idea for this, he said, was worked out between himself and Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi in 2004 when they created the European Democratic Party at the European Parliament.